Reading Response #2

           The book that I've been reading for the past week is called The Chocolate War by, Robert Cormier. It's about a boy named Jerry Renault and he goes to an all boy catholic high school. He refuses to sell chocolates in the annual Trinity School Fund Raiser. Jerry is in a secret school society called the Vigils. One thing the Jerry goes through is stress.

           One thing that shows that Jerry is stressed is he's in a secret school society called the Vigils. Only selected students are allowed to attend to the society.  It doesn't seem like him to be in that sort of group, he seems like he can be independent and doesn’t need people bossing him around, I think he's only in that group to feel important because when you’re a freshman not many people are aware of you and think you’re a nobody and they can do anything they want to you. In order to be officially in the group you must perform a task the "boss" tells you to do. Jerry had to unscrew all the screws in his classroom. He was doing it but he felt guilty and couldn't finish alone so he had some help.                                                                                                                                              

        Teens now a days are stressed out , whether its fro high school or just doing what your friends think is cool but you don;t and still end up doing it. A lot of things happen and are completly unexpected. I'm not going to write a 5 paragraph essay about why teens get stressed out becuase there are lots of reasons. In the book the Chocolate War that is one of the many reasons that Jerry is probably stressed out of, and Jerry is probably more stressed out than it even says in the book. Bottom line , teens have a lot of things to handle and get stressed out very easily.

Forward for Multi Genre Project

      For the past couple of weeks we've been reading and writing about the topic of Coming of Age. In other words that means growing up.
      The first project that i did for Coming of Age is a diary entry of how a teenage girl might feel when her parents treat her like a little kid. Not only do teenage girls get frustrated but every teenager gets frustrated and annoyed when their parents treat them like they're little. Teens try to prove to their parents that they are responsible and they can do anything that their parents ask them to do. But sometimes, teenagers try to find themselves and dress and act different ways to see which way fit best, but parents try to change their kids which annoys them. It also annoys me too, like if i want to wear something that i find cute, i don't want you telling me to change, i just want your opinion and then leave it at that.
       The second project that i did for Coming of Age is a dialogue about a teenager and their parent tells the teen to pick something up when the teen was going to do it anyway. That also annoys me too. I yell at my parents for doing that to me. It erks my nerves, I'm pretty sure it annoys every other teenager too. I don't get parents sometimes, they say how they want us to do things without them telling us to, but yet when they clearly see that we're doing it, they have the need to say it anyway.
        The third project that i did for Coming of Age is a poem about how mosrt teens probably feel. I'm a teen and i don't speak for anyone but myself. But some teens may agree with me. I remember when i was in elementary school and i wanted to go to middle school, i think i even said i even wanted to go to high school. But now i just want to go back to elementary school and do nothing. I miss everything that i didn't need to do, but i love the people that i met, and some...well...not so much.
       Growing up isn't a bad thing, its a way of life. But everyone will have something that they are going to miss.

Multi Genre Project -------- Poem ( fighting with parents as teenagers )

Joanna Vitalakis                                                                                                                              Poem Poem about fighting with parents as teenagers

Growing Up

It’s every kids dream

All they want to do is get away from their parents

They want to get away from all the madness

Want to be treated like adults

Expected to act like adults

Treated like kids

Reality check

All teenagers already want to go back to elementary school

Multi Genre Project ------- Dialogue between a teengaer and their parent (fighting with parents as teenagers)

Joanna Vitalakis                                                                                                                                          Dialogue between a teenager and their parent

*Teenager about to go and pick up something they dropped on the floor*

Parent: Go pick that up

Teenager: Don’t you see that I’m going to go and pick it up?

Parent: Don’t give me that attitude and just go and do it.

Teenager: You saw that I was about to go and pick it up! Why are you telling me what to do when you see that I’m going to do it on my own?!

Parent: You see you’re not responsible, you can’t even pick up after yourself!

Teenager: I WAS PICKING IT UP!!!!!!!!! YOU DON’T HAVE TO MAKE A COMMENT ABOUT EVERYTHING I DO, IM RESPONSIBLE ENOUGH TO PICK SOMETHING UP WITH YOU TELLING ME TO!!!

Parent: That’s it I’ve had enough of your crap, go pick it up and go to your room!

Teenager: I WAS GOING TO PICK IT UP ANYWAY! WHATEVER!

-___________________________________________________________-

Multi Genre Project -------- Diary Entry (fighting with parents as teenagers)

Joanna Vitalakis                                                                                                                    Diary of a teenage girl

Dear Diary,

     Again I am fighting with my parents. They treat me like I’m a little kid. Nothing I do will ever change for them. No matter how hard I work I will always be a baby in their eyes. I just went to school in the shortest shorts I have and a strapless shirt. It’s no biggie; all of my friends wore that too. I had to sneak out of the house in the morning , I know my parents wouldn’t approve of that , but I thought the outfit was so cute to wear , and my friends liked it too so that was a plus ! Today when I came home from school I didn’t expect my dad to be home because he works late nights. But as soon as I walk through the door and ready to dash up the stairs I find my dad waiting for me in the front of the door. He didn’t say much , but that’s all he needed to do. I ran upstairs and changed into my pajamas , I was so embarrassed ! Of course my dad told my mom what happened when I came home. Why wouldn’t he ? But my mom…a whole different other story, she started to yell at me and saying, “you’re just a child and you look like a slut! There’s not need to dress like that ! “I yelled back, I was tired of not being treated like an adult. My parents want me to act like an adult but they can’t treat me like one. Ugh!

                        From yours one and only owner,                                                                                                Joanna <3

Reading Response (aka Literary Essay)

           The book that I've been reading for the past week is called The Chocolate War by,  Robert Cormier. It's about a boy named Jerry Renault and he goes to an all boy ycatholic high school. He refuses to sell chocolates in the annual Trinity School Fund Raiser. Jerry is in a secret school society called the Vigils. I think he's a normal teenage boy trying to fit in at a new school , considering he's a freshman .
           One thing that shows Jerry is trying to fit in is he tries our for the football team. He never seemed like the kid to try out for the football team. He was the one the coach would always pick on. The kids on the football team would always yell at him for not catching the ball or throwing it right. But as time progressed , he was getting better and the coach started to like him better and so did his team mates. So in a way he started to fit in.
             Another thing that shows that Jerry is trying to fit in is he's in a secret school society called the Vigils. Only selected students are allowed to attend to the society.  It doesn't seem like him to be in that sort of group , he seems like he can be independent and doesnt need people bossing him around , i think he's only in that group to feel important because when your a freshman not many people are aware of you and think your a nobody and they can do anything they want to you. In orer to be officially in the group uyou must perform a task the "boss" tells you to do. Jerry had to unscrew all the screws in his classroom . He was doing it but he felt guilty and couldn't finish alone so he had some help. He probrably felt pressured to do it . That's another thing any teenager can go through , peer pressure.
            Jerry is a nice sweet kid that tries to fit in . He tries out for the  football team and is part of a group that everyone would want to be in but only selected students permitted. He's only a freshman and he wants people to know him in a good way , and for people to be friendly and know who is is . He wants to feel important or feel like he's someone that everyone would want to get to know.
             Many teenagers now a days try to fit in in some way . Whether its trying out for sports , or getting into a group thats popular or being the kid that everyone knows , teens go through these feelings . Another thing that teens go through is peer pressure , they always feel pressured into doing things that their friends tell them to do .

Reading Response

         Over the break i read a book called The Nigh Thoreau Spent in Jail. It was actually interesting. There is this guy named Henry Thoreau and he teaches kids in jail. He stands up for what he believes in and is very eduacated. He went to Harvard. Ηis mom though is very protective. She thinks that Henry is going to end up in jail one day because of his big mouth. Henry does what he wants and when he wants to. For example, Henry got arrested for not paying his taxes. His own friend Sam, is a cop/sheriff , and had to arrest him becasue he was arguing with one of Sam's boss.
         Henry's damily wanted to bail him out. But he wouldn't let any of them bail him out. Except for his aunt who bailed him out. But Henry refused to leave the cell , but he had no choice because he was leggally bailed out. This book is about standing up for what you believe in and that's what Henry did.

Reading Response

The book that i was previously reading was called, Access Denied. This book was about a girl named Erin Swift and how she's in the seventh grade and is a normal teenage girl. She goes to middle school and has an overprotective mother. Her mother checks up on everything, if Erin would want to go to the movies her mother would go online and check if its G or PG or PG-13 or R. She would only allow her daughter to see G and PG. Erin also has her first boyfriend. Her mom isn't to thrilled about it but Erin doesn't really care. But at the same time dating her boyfriend, Erin has a crush on a boy named Mark. Eventually, at the end Erin had quit the seventh grade year.

Response to My Papa'sWaltz

My Papa's Waltz


The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.


We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.


The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.


You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.

When i read this poem i thought that this poem was about a father abusing his son. When we talked about this poem in class a one or two kids thought that this poem was about a father and son playing around. But i don't believe that. I think that this poem is about abuse. For example, when the poet says The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle; i think that means that the father was beating his son on the hand. which means that his father was abusing him.

3 other blog response

Amani: I love how Amani goes into great description. Every single post she writes, I can tell she really puts a lot of time and effort into it.
Emma: I like how emma has great ideas and comes up with things out of the ordinary. I liker her creativity and the way she puts things together.
Isabella: I like how  she gives what she truly feels in her blogposts. I can tell she deeply thinks about what shes typing.

Poem on an incident

Sitting
Falling
Hurt
Tears
Hopsital
Broken
Damaged

Response about a poem read in class

One poem that i read in class was Photograph of the Girl. The first time i read this poem i thought she was homeless and pregnant becasue the way Sharon Olds described it sounded and i could've imagined that too. And she also just so happen to be homeless. Because sometimes when teenage girls are prgnant the parents don't approve and could kick them out of the house. But the thing i was wrong about was her being pregnant. I thought that she was pregnant because it said, 'Deep in her body the ovaries let out her first eggs.' But it just so happens that she got her well....Best Friend for the very first time. I realized that she was pregnant when it said, 'Hunger and puberty are taking her together.' This poem was very open and it had a lot of detail and I could've imagined exactly what the girl looked and probably felt like too.

Observations, inferences, and interpretations

Observations: Use different colors, textures of shades of the same colors
                      Half of the painting is one color and  the other half is another color
                      There is a man and a wman underneath an umbrella
                      Half of the painting is like fall and the other half is like winter
Inferences: The man and the woman could be on a date
                  It could show how long the man and the woman are together
                  The man could be the father and the girl could be the daughter or wife or niece or cousin
Interpertations: They both are probably on a date since there both avout the same height and look about the same age from the back and, from what it looks like, are arm in arm.


http://realchristianity.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/romantical-love-painting-photo.jpg

Author's note

      Christina and her mother are homeless and have to live in one house with five other families. They don't have money to buy anything. The only thing that they eat is bread and water.
      It's not easy being homeless, especially when your a kid. According to Nearly Half of New York City's Homeless are Children,Whyte, Alan. January 7, 2004;New York has the largest number of men, women, and children crowded into little shelter homes. Also according to the city's Department of Homeless Services, the night of January 2 saw 38,222 homeless people forced to turn to city's shelter system.
       When you're a kid you still go to school,sometimes. It's not easy going to school with other kids that are not homeless and do have money. According to Homeless Families with Children, National Coalition for the Homeless. August 2002, there are many families that are homeless, about 41%.
        I feel like many families should have more opportunities to do what they want and to achieve higher goals in life so they don't stay homeless and could do something with their life. Most people don't really appreciate the things they have. Even if it's the little things you should always be thankful because there are people out there that don't even have those little things, they have nothing.

Research

http://www.research.uky.edu/odyssey/spring98/adolescents.html

        The link above me pretty much rounds up how teens especially are being treated. I mean these stories aren't really proving anything. I think that in order for you to agree with us "kids" as most people would call us you would have to actually be in the same position as us. Like we really don't get any respect am we're really tired of it. All of the teens, i can tell look pretty fed up. Teens now at theses days wanna be treated with repsect and treated like adults. Not all teens act like their two years old. Hello? We're people too. Also maybe it's not always the way the kids act are their fault.
        Maybe sometimes teens act like that because since grown-ups treat them with little respect and think that teens are nothing but trouble the kids just act the way the grown-ups think that they really act when the teens are actually more mature then what grown-ups take them for. I sometimes do that too because sometimes in school or at home either the teachers or parents talk to us like were in pre-school i do the complete opposite just to get them annoyed and sometimes its really funny because then the grown-ups get what they always think what we do. But they know that we don't always act like that.

Read and Response to songs/or poems on social problem

        When i listened to this song i thought it was good for this i thought it was perfect for this kind of response because not only is it something that everyone can understand and can like, it's also a song that is kind of catchy. I heard this song before and even though i reall don't like most of the people that sing that they sing for a good cause. And trust me i don't like most of them. But all of there voices and the way they sing this song is really good. The lyrics aren't that bad. They show that we should all give and pass it on. Also we should make a change and be hand in hand with eachother and help eachother. 
         Also when they say a word is just a word until you mean what you say is really powerful. Thats like one of the best lines in the whole song because everyone can relate and agree on that. We may all say things one minute but yet not mean it until we actually do something about it. When you also talk about the world i don't think that you should not mean something. You and i all live in the world. But that's really just one thing that you really should mean.
         As i was re-reading what i wrote and re-read the lyrics and listened to the song again i realized that this song doesn't really have to be just about saving the world or any of the enviormental. It can also be about anything that you would want it to be. It can be about something that is special to you or something that your pasionate about, or maybe even something that doesn't have anything to do with you but you just have a heart about it and you want it to get better or maybe feel better.                                                                                                  




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liFrTKg9BUY-------VIDEO

http://www.metrolyrics.com/send-it-on-lyrics-demi-lovato.html-----LYRICS

Observed surroundings (school,home,neighborhood,media)

           I have realized around mostly everywhere that kids haven't been treated the same respect as adults get. Whenever i go to to lunch i always notice that the person behind the counter always takes the gwown-ups order first. They think that grown-ups were there real customers but we always ended up being the ones comming in everyday and spending our money which was probably more than double the amount of money but then again i forgot us kids are nothing. We mean and seem like nothing to the other grown-ups.
         I have also realized that even the little things. Like when kids are crossing the street and grown-ups just stare at you, especially when kids cross with a red light. Like seriously? Grown-ups do the same exact thing. There not special. Do they honestly think that there any better then kids? Pshh notat all. They were a kid as well. Us kids are the future of today! Haha so true though. But it's really  no difference. Kids deserve the same amount of respect that the grown-ups get as well.
 

                             

http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/6912/i_want_to_start_a_children_s_civil_rights_movement

Media/News Immersion

      I've been watching a little bit of the news at night. What I have been noticing is that there have been people surprised in their own houses, people missing and robberies. As I have been watching the news it got me thinking of how much goes on in life and how many families and friends are affected by things that happen. Speaking on a note in the past i still remember there was this family and how someone broke into their apartment and slept in a girl's bed and when that girl woke up her brother came in from hearing all the screaming and the intruder escaped. But he left his shirt there outside the window. Now there is a rap called The Bed Intruder song and it's actually really catchy.
        Also, I have been noticing that there have been many missing people and most of the time it's during the day, during like school time and not the early morning or late at night alothough somethimes there are situations like that.
       Going back to what i said how families and friends are affected by things that happen, there are also stiuations where it doesn't only affect them but it could also make their economy life with their money problems. There are also people out there that steal stores and steal valuables in houses. Most of the time the things that are being stolen have destroyed other peoples lives.

       This is a little kid that is getting robbed and at a point where a knife had to come out.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/bed-intruder-rant-buys-family-a-new-home/

Entry #8 Mother to Son

      The poem that i read was called Mother to Son by Langston Hughes. When i read the poem i realized how much the mother has gone through and what she has done to keep her son alive. It was pretty clear how the mother's life was. She says "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, And splinters And boards torn up And places with no carpet on the floor Bare." By thhis amount of writing it shows how her life has been and how there were always problems.
       By the word splinters and tacks i was thinking how she probably could've been hurt and abused or maybe emotionally hurt. Also with the words boards torn up probably meant that her house living probably has never been the best. She probably had to live in a tiny house with one room and how maybe even that one room wasn't even pleasant. With the words Life for me ain't been no crystal chair it made me think that her life must've been really tough. She describes what she has gone through and her life really sad.
      When I read the title of the book i thought that this poem was gonna be a mother finding her son or a mother talking about her getting a divorce or something else, but i never expected her to speak about her own life. She also talks about how he shouldn't give up on anything and to never back down to something that he wants to to do or he believes in. In a way i think that the Mother is saying to the Son don't screw up like me and don't go through a life like me because my life hasn't been a walk in the park. And I've been through so much just to get you a better life.
      

Appreciation for Stuart Little

      What I love about Stuart Little by E.B. White is how even thought the character Stuart is really small, he overcomes obstacles and is not limited by his size.
       Stuart makes use of his small size. He doesn't let his size interfere with anything that he wants to do. Sometimes he takes his size to his advantage. For example, in the beginning of the book, Mrs. Little (his mother) dropped her wedding ring down the drain in the kitchen. She tried to get it on her own but she couldn't do it because it was too dark to see anything and she's too big to put her hands in. So Stuart offered to help and went down the drain and got the ring!
        Stuart also helps others and does difficult things. He helps family and  friends. He even helps strangers, like seriously, people he doesn't even know. Whenever he sees someone upset or all alone he goes up to that person and asks if he/she is ok. For example, when he was driving in his car he saw this guy that was a principal sitting on the side of the street looking at the floor. Stuart went up to him and asked him if he was ok and he said how he needs a substitue teacher and Stuart offered to help and be the substitue. That was kind of a challenge for him since the desk was so gigantic to him. But he still managed to go through with it until the end and accomplished being the substitute.
          There are many other animals that also kind of go through the same thing like Stuart with their size and what they do and what they have to go through. A book that I read before is called Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. When i read that book I noticed that there was some sort of connection. Both books both kind of have the same concept, both books have talking animals and are both trying to save someone. In the book Charlotte's Web there is this small spider named Charlotte that has to go through obstacles to help out a friend that's a pig that's named Wilbur. That is exactly what Stuart has to do for the bird named Margalo. Charlotte has to go out of her way and go around town to help save Wilbur. That is exactly what what Stuart is doing but only he needs to find her while Charlotte needs to save Wilbur. But they both still are tiny and go out of their way and go around town or city to help their friend.
       These books should not only be for kids. They could also be for grown-ups. Alot of things happen in these books. It's not just for little kids just to ammuse them but there is also some point in the books. Some of the points that i think the books make are how strong a friendship can be and see how far a friend will go for you. Another reason is how you can see how your life can relate to the books, there are some mean animals in the books and there are also mean people in real life. Life isn't always how you expect it. So meet people and treat them nice because you never know who you might lose or meet.